Quilly House, 43 Lower Quilly Road, Dromore, Banbridge, Co Down, BT25 1NL

Quilly House is a symmetrical, three-bay, two-storey-over-basement Georgian gentleman's house built around 1800, situated on the Lower Quilly Road approximately one mile east of Dromore in a rural setting. It is an L-shaped plan form in overall layout. Although its proportions remain those of the original early 19th-century house, much of its present external appearance and detail reflects later 19th-century Victorian remodelling, including the portico and decorative mouldings, though some earlier detailing has survived unchanged.

Architectural Description

The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate with leaded hips and ridge. The rainwater goods are cast iron with an ogee moulded profile. The rendered chimney stacks are smooth, with moulded string-courses, cornicing, and chimney pots. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render with vermiculated long-and-short quoins at the corners, and an ogee moulded eaves course runs along the top of the wall below the roofline.

The windows are generally tripartite timber sliding sashes, each comprising a central 6-over-6 sash flanked by narrower 2-over-2 sashes with horizontal glazing bars. At ground floor level, the windows have plain sills with decorative brackets and shaped aprons below, and moulded pilasters rising to consoles that support a moulded entablature above. At first floor level, the windows are tripartite 3-over-6 sliding sashes with complementary side sashes, moulded surrounds with raised key-blocks, and raised aprons with foliated ornamentation.

The front entrance door is a timber four-panel raised-and-fielded design with a segmental-arched fanlight above incorporating radial glazing bars, though the fanlight view is partly obscured. The door is fitted with wrought-iron ironmongery and is flanked by paired engaged Doric columns with ribbed bases.

Principal Elevations

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. It is approached via a raised platform accessed by winder bifurcated steps on either side of a masonry balustrade with a moulded panel below. A tetrastyle Doric portico supports an elliptical arcade, which is surmounted by a masonry balustrade parapet. Ground floor windows are positioned in the left and right bays, with three first floor windows directly above them. A diminished-height sliding sash window serves the basement on the right side.

The left (west) elevation is detailed to match the front, with openings at each floor. It features French doors with sidelights, accessed via masonry steps flanked by masonry balustrades, and two diminished-height sliding sash windows at basement level.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged and has no ornamental detailing. It is abutted on the left by a two-storey-over-basement wing, with a further two-storey-over-basement gabled abutment at the re-entrant angle, which has a lateral ridge. The rear overlooks a yard and includes a variety of window types, notably a 3-over-6 round-headed landing light with radial glazing bars and coloured glazing. Sheeted basement doors are present on both internal elevations of the rear wing. The external elevation of the rear wing is detailed similarly to the front, with two ground and first floor windows above a battered basement level that has infilled openings. The north elevation of the rear wing is blank except for a round-headed recess at ground floor level. The south elevation of the rear wing is abutted by a single-storey hipped extension built around 1990, which is of no historic interest.

The right (east) elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a centrally positioned ground and first floor window matching those on the principal elevation, except that the first floor window lacks the vertical glazing bars. The basement openings on this elevation have been infilled.

Setting and Grounds

The house is approached from the Lower Quilly Road through an entrance defined by rendered panelled piers with a projected plinth and moulded cornicing, each surmounted by an ornamental falcon perched on a half-sphere. These are hung with wrought-iron estate gates. Flanking the main piers are smaller, matching piers without falcons, which support wrought-iron pedestrian gates. A second pair of plain piers further along the approach defines the boundary of the immediate setting, which is screened by trees. The grounds are well maintained, with a large lawn to the east.

To the south of the main house stands an earlier structure, likely predating the current mansion and possibly dating from the 17th century, now used as a cattle barn. It is built of snecked rubble walling with brick surrounds to the original openings, most of which are now infilled. It is of no interior interest and received a new roof following a fire around 1960. Adjacent to this earlier structure are the remains of an associated walled garden. The outer face of the walled garden is rubble masonry, while the internal face is hand-made brick, with square-headed pedestrian accesses. An elliptical-arched opening to the west has been infilled, the grounds within are overgrown, and some remains of the base of a greenhouse survive along the west and north walls. To the rear of the house there is a further range of modern agricultural buildings and portacabins, accessed by a network of interlinking concrete yards.

Historical Background

The Vaughan family held lands at Quilly from the 17th century. According to Atkinson, the family were descended from the Reverend George Vaughan, born in 1634, and the land was granted to them in recognition of their loyalty during the 1641 Rebellion. The present house was erected around 1800 and first appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, which also records the two-storey north-west extension as already built by that date. The 1834 map also shows a gate lodge at the demesne entrance on the Lower Quilly Road and a large L-shaped range of farm buildings to the south-east; most of these original outbuildings have since been replaced with modern structures.

By the 1830s, the house was the residence of George Vaughan Esquire, recorded as a local farmer and gentleman in both the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1830 and Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of 1837. The Townland Valuations of that period valued the demesne at £30 14 shillings, with the house individually assessed at £13 18 shillings and 3 pence before reductions. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1861 the total site value had risen to £33 10 shillings following the addition of further outbuildings. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows that a new gate lodge had been erected on the opposite side of the estate entrance from the original, which had been taken down. Dean records that the replacement lodge, a single-storey structure in a pretty late Georgian style, was built around 1840 following the death of George Vaughan Esquire. This lodge was itself demolished sometime after 1973.

George Vaughan Esquire was the father of Margaret Vaughan (1826–1875), who married Mitchell Henry in 1850. Henry was initially a surgeon but later moved with his wife to County Galway, where he was elected as a Home Rule Member of Parliament and built Kylemore Castle. Margaret Vaughan died in 1874 and was buried in an impressive mausoleum at Kylemore.

Ownership passed through the family and its tenants over subsequent decades. Upon the death of George Montgomery Vaughan Junior in 1878, the estate passed to his brother Alexander, who did not reside there but let it to the Reverend Henry Murphy, Rector of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Redeemer in Dromore. Between 1864 and 1876 occupancy passed to the Reverend Charles B. Knox, who continued at the property until 1891, when another George Montgomery Vaughan took possession. The house was purchased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners during this same period. The 1901 Census records George M. Vaughan, aged 75, a widowed Church of Ireland farmer and landlord, residing at Quilly House with his daughters and domestic servants. The census building return classified the house as a first-class dwelling containing 24 rooms, with an extensive range of farm offices including a stable, two cow houses, a dairy, piggery, fowl house, boiling house, barn, turf house, potato house, store, and laundry.

The third edition Ordnance Survey map records that by 1903 a long range of farm buildings had been constructed extending east of the original L-shaped range, including a row of greenhouses along the north wall of the square walled enclosure, all of which have since been removed. George Vaughan died in 1902, leaving the house to the Reverend George Henry Vaughan, who during the 1911 Census was recorded as residing in Dublin where he served as Rector of St Michan's in Church Street. The Reverend George Vaughan continued to be recorded as occupant until 1929, when a Miss Evelyn Vaughan took possession. The house remained in Vaughan family ownership until the mid-20th century.

Quilly House was listed in 1977 and has not been significantly altered since the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903 to 1916. The surviving two-storey barn to the south-east may date from at least the 1834 map and may have been a dwelling prior to the construction of the current mansion, having been let to tenants as late as the 1950s. The square walled enclosure to the south-east of the house still stands, though its walls have been breached in several places and all former greenhouses and garden features have been removed. The house is considered a good example of the type of medium-sized country residence that has evolved in appearance with changing times and fashions.